! UPDATE (2-2-19) IS LOCATED IN THE AUTHORS NOTE AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER

Here's the reply to the review left last chapter:

Sterling Young: Glad you're liking it! :)

Ectoplasmic Secrets

One of a Kind

Summary: A ghost visits Amity Park after hearing rumors of the halfa who lives there.

Skulker had heard enough bits of the rumors to piece them together. First he'd heard it from some of the regular visitors of Amity Park, and then an elderly ghost woman had come rushing back into the Infinite Realms claiming the rumors were true. She told stories about how this creature had taken her down and sucked her into a tiny contraption where she'd known nothing but darkness for hours before she'd been thrown back into the Infinite Realms. That had piqued Skulker's interests. For the following week stories and gossip continued to roll in from ghosts who had either spotted the creature or been captured and sent back by it.

Skulker floated a safe distance away and pulled out his binoculars. He'd tracked the creature to this location and was about to finally get his first look at his new prey.

He zoomed in and saw the pesky Box Ghost saying something he couldn't hear and gesturing wildly. Searching a little more around the room his view finally settled.

But it couldn't be.

Skulker didn't know what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't to see that the half breed everyone had been talking about was a mere child.

For a moment he thought he might've made a mistake until he saw the ghost child pull out some sort of device and trapped the box ghost in it. Then he was sure.

"So, the half breed is a child. Doesn't change anything. He's still half human, half ghost. One of a kind." And Skulker's new prey.

Danny supposed it had all started when he'd gotten a bad grade on his first biology test of the semester. He'd gotten a D thanks to all the late nights he'd had recently, and he knew if his parents heard about it, they'd be furious. After all, the Fenton's were supposed to be a family of geniuses.

He'd told his friends about his problem later that day, or at least the part of the problem that didn't involve late nights and ghost fights. Sam then suggested doing the extra credit assignment that was given. It was easy, just go to the local zoo, pick an animal, do a little research and observe, then write a paper on what you learned. Sam and Tucker had even offered to go with him after school.

The three of them were at the zoo that afternoon for a few hours. Danny had decided to write his paper on the purple back gorilla that was there, having done a bit of research beforehand at the school library. Sam had been in rebellious-activist mode most of the while that they were at the zoo, claiming all the animals deserved to live free and in the wild. Tucker was just there to tag along and had nearly fallen asleep at least three times.

It was sunset then, and just as Danny had nearly finished his paper, something began to happen. All the animals in the zoo started acting up at the same time, sensing something that people couldn't see yet. A couple minutes after that some staff members of the zoo began coming around to all the exhibits, asking people to clear the area temporarily.

"What's going on?"

"We just need to clear the exhibits temporarily. Everyone, please proceed to the exits in an orderly fashion."

Already with a good feeling of what was going on, Danny had been able to slip away from his two friends, and the rest of the people for that matter, fairly easily.

In his ghost form, Danny took a look around the area invisibly. For probably around five minutes he found nothing until a small, high pitched beep sounded from a few feet away, and he was confronted by a huge robotic ghost.

The robotic ghost stood tall, at least seven feet, possibly more, and had a flaming green mohawk. "Ah, the human ghost child in its natural habitat."

"Okay, who are you, and why should I care?" Danny asked.

The ghost seemed unfazed by the snideness. "I am Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter. I collect the most rare and unique, and you, ghost child, are that."

Before anything else could be said, a sleek, expensive government car pulled up to the side of them, and then another from the other direction. Danny had seen those cars at his own family's house too many times to not know what they meant. He also knew for a fact that he did not want to stick around long enough to see the wrong end of an ectogun.

"The hunter will not become the hunted" Skulker mumbled, "Stay alert ghost child. The hunt is now on."

Danny watched as Skulker vanished in front of him and wasted no time in doing the same.

He heard the car doors and the voices behind him yelling as he flew away from the area that was quickly crawling with GIW agents.

Figuring the ghost was gone at least temporarily, Danny went back to the crowd of people near the exit of the zoo, changed back into his regular form and found Sam and Tucker. Thankfully they'd bought the excuse that he'd just gotten separated from them in the crowd.

The rest of the night was tense for Danny. As he was walking down the street to his house, having dinner with his parents and sister, and finishing his extra credit paper while listening to the interview his mom was doing with someone from Genius Magazine downstairs, he was constantly expecting Skulker to show up at any moment. He'd tried to stay awake as long as he could that night, but eventually his eyes had drifted closed as result of the sleep he'd already been lacking from nights before.

The next morning went similarly, with Danny looking over his shoulder every so many seconds.

It wasn't until lunch time that anything happened.

The three of them had chosen to sit outside again, like they and many other students had been since the cafeteria worker's ghost had attacked.

While the three of them had been sitting there peacefully, just trying to get some social time before their next class, Skulker had appeared out of the blue. All the students were shocked that another ghost was attacking at the school, since before the lunch lady incident there were hardly any supernatural events ever recorded at the school.

The moment Skulker appeared and set his sights on Danny, the boy hadn't known what to do. It wasn't like he could change forms right in front of all those people, or right in front of Sam and Tucker. Luckily the ghost was easily distracted by the shiny device in Tucker's hands and snatched it away, forgetting about the half ghost for a few seconds.

"This technology. So sleek, so...advanced." Skulker said and looked between Tucker's phone and some of the faulty old screens on his metallic arm, "hmm, I wonder..."

With no warning, Skulker suddenly smashed the phone in his hand into his arm. Wires flowed and snapped into place as Tucker's jaw dropped in horror.

"Hey! I got three more payments on that!"

Skulker could care less about the human boy's financial problem and easily shoved him away.

"Tuck!" Danny yelled instinctively.

Skulker grinned and set his eyes back on his target. "Now, where were we?"

A little electric tune sounded and Skulker flared at the stolen technology in his arm. "Go to geometry?" he read questioningly. A jet pack burst out of the ghosts back and within a couple seconds he was flying away to another part of the school uncontrollably.

Through the weirdness of that event and the fact that Tucker mentioned he'd put his whole daily schedule into his phone, Danny eventually figured out that Skulker had become bound to Tucker's schedule.

Definitely not good.

Skulker suppressed the urge to groan out loud, as that would give away his location. He was floating invisibly in the technology boy's house, watching as the table was being set with dishes and silverware. They were late. The infernal piece of technology, that Skulker was now regretting having stolen, had said that there would be "Mom's Meatloaf" at seven thirty.

Skulker couldn't physically leave. He was forced through that glitch in his suit's systems to stay on the technology boy's same schedule. Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to disconnect the infernal device yet, although he was trying. He'd much rather be out there hunting down that half breed. Speaking of the half breed...Skulker had quickly realized the technology boy and his prey were likely acquaintances, so even if he did remain stuck to this boy's schedule, they'd meet again sometime soon.

The ghost watched invisibly as the family of three sat down at the table and finally dig into a steaming meatloaf. They were twelve minutes late.

Then an idea came to him.

Skulker paid little mind to the terrified screams of all three of the family members as he suddenly revealed his form. They all froze when he pointed a gun to the young one's head.

"You. I demand that you remove this infernal piece of technology!"

"Wh-What?" the boy asked timidly.

Skulker sneered, "This!" he yelled, gesturing to the boy's device that was stuck in his suit's arm, "This infernal thing has me bound to your schedule, so remove it so that I, Skulker, may go back to being the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter!"

"Is that actually a real title? Or did you just give it to yourself?"

Danny had been waiting a while. He'd known that Skulker was still around Tucker because of his ghost sense, but he was choosing to stay invisible. Ever since he'd figured out what Tucker's phone had done to the ghost earlier that day, he'd been secretly going to wherever Tucker's schedule said, whenever it said it.

That time, however, Skulker had finally shown himself and ended up demanding that Tucker take the phone off while holding a gun to his head. That sight had frozen in his tracks, especially as he realized that yet again on of his friends were in danger because of a ghost, and one that was after him, no less. If it wasn't for him being this-this whatever, Tucker never would be in the situation he was in at the moment.

Skulker began rambling on again about how he was apparently the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter and Danny realized the ghost's ego seemed to be through the roof. He let his invisibility down noticing how Mr. Foley's eyes widened even more.

"Is that actually a real title? Or did you just give it to yourself?" he asked, feeling oddly relieved when Skulker immediately turned his aim away from Tucker and on him instead.

"Of course it's a real title. You shall not get away with such an insult, ghost child." Skulker said with a sneer. The large, supernaturally powered gun aimed at Danny made a high pitched whine that grew with each fleeting moment. "Now, ghost child, say-"

"Who gave it to you then? Cause I'm just saying, it really doesn't sound very official, no offense." Danny asked, while trying to think of what to do. The three Foleys were still too close for comfort, and it wasn't like there was much room to move out of the way of a shot in the small dining room. He had the thermos, but knew it likely wouldn't work if he tried to use it then, Skulker was too strong. It had barely managed to trap the cafeteria worker's ghost the week before, and that had been after she'd already taken some hits. He also still had the small ectogun, but that was like a slingshot and pebbles compared to Skulker's arsenal.

"What?" the ghost asked, wondering for a moment if he'd heard correctly. "How dare you doubt me, Skulker!"

Skulker's mechanical hand flew forward and grabbed Danny's collar, pulling him forward from where he'd been floating. His other hand pulled back into a steel fist, the gun having disappeared back into his armor for the time being.

Danny winced, expecting a hard blow to the left side of his face. Weirdly enough the only thing unfamiliar about the situation was that he was currently a ghost, or kind of a ghost, and that Skulker wasn't actually Dash or some other jock.

After a second of waiting, he realized the metal fist had frozen in place, and when he looked he found that Skulker himself looked like he was on a TV screen that had been paused. The only thing different was that the flames that made his fiery mohawk had extinguished and the green light in his eyes had gone out, leaving just empty holes in the metal head.

Danny quickly phased out of the ghost's grip and stumbled backwards, looking at the frozen hunk of metal in confusion.

"Sweet! It worked!" Tucker yelled. "What worked? What on earth happened?" Mrs. Foley asked, looking between Skulker, Danny, and her son with worry and fear etched on her face.

"He said he was bound to my schedule, so I just went on here," Tucker said, gesturing to his laptop which he had pulled from who knows where, "put 'shut down' into my schedule and beamed the updated version to my phone."

Danny grinned, of course Tucker would be able to figure out how to do that, he was the most tech smart person he'd ever known. There was a noise of metal scratching and clanking and he turned to see the top of the metal head open and a little green blob-like creature pop out.

"My suit! You will pay for what you have done ghost child!" Skulker yelled, his voice now tiny and scratchy. Danny almost laughed as he pulled out the thermos and aimed it at the ghost. As Skulker was being sucked into the device, he kept yelling.

"You haven't seen the last of me ghost child! Do you hear me?! The hunt is not over!"

The empty metal armor got pulled into the thermos as well and Danny put the cap on and glanced at the three Foleys. They each had something different written on their faces when he looked at them. Mrs. Foley showed fear in her wide brown eyes, Mr. Foley made a look of defensiveness as he subtly placed himself in between Danny and his wife and son, and Tucker's face wore a mask of uncertainty as if questioning whether or not he should be afraid. It was strange, uncomfortable even, to see all three of them look at him like that. Of course they didn't know it, but they were like his second family.

Looking away from them, he simply said, "Sorry about all this" and vanished before leaving the house, knowing that Skulker wouldn't be following Tucker anymore.

A/N: Hello! Hope you guys enjoyed this alternate version of the episode! Sorry the writing quality seems to have dipped a bit, especially in the first half of the chapter. I might go back and edit again another time.

Unfortunately I've been rather busy lately and haven't been able to write for this much, so I'm going to have to push the posting date for the next chapter to Tuesday, January 29th. I was intending on it simply being next Friday originally, but I figured this way should allow me to get a buffer chapter written and will provide less stress. Hopefully you all can understand this.

! UPDATE (2-2-19): I'm very sorry I was unable to make the previous upload date i had scheduled. It just seems like every minute of my time has been devoted to something else these past two weeks. Hoping to make the new upload date of Wednesday February 20th. I've put it farther out so that it is more reachable and because I'll be away on a family trip next week.

Thank you all for reading/reviewing/favoriting/following! "See" ya next time!